Recently, with the rapid development of the display industry, the market of display-related products is no more dominated by the bulky cathode ray tube (CRT) displays but has seen the emergence of all kinds of new displays, such as liquid crystal displays (LCDs), plasma displays, digital displays, analog displays, and so on. Meanwhile, there is a trend for the displays to be increasingly thinner and lighter. Hence, displays have become more and more convenient and indispensable in our daily lives.
However, the loudspeaker structure for displays has not improved correspondingly, mainly because the acoustic waves of a loudspeaker require a loudspeaker box for resonance and thereby enhancing sound propagation. Due to the loudspeaker box, the loudspeaker structure requires a large space and is prevented from being installed where space is limited. Besides, wall-mounted displays have become more and more popular nowadays, but the conventional loudspeaker structure cannot be installed on a wall without using a mount or bracket, which is highly inconvenient. While there are many loudspeaker products on the market that have been improved in design, they still have certain drawbacks in use, as explained hereinafter with reference to two commercially available loudspeaker structures by way of example.
Please refer to FIG. 1 for a conventional loudspeaker structure 1 which includes a rectangular loudspeaker box 11 and a loudspeaker (not shown). The two rectangular loudspeaker boxes 11 shown in FIG. 1 are fixed to two lateral sides of a display 10 respectively. Each loudspeaker box 11 is provided therein with a receiving space for receiving the corresponding loudspeaker. The loudspeakers are electrically connected to the display 10 so as to receive audio signals therefrom. As the loudspeaker structures 1 and the display 10 form as a single unit, the user is spared the inconvenience of having to install additional loudspeakers while using the display 10. However, the loudspeaker structures 1 did not improve the overall design of the display 10. The loudspeaker structures 1 is heavy and bulky, but also add to the load of the supporting base 12 at the bottom of the display 10, thus affecting the overall structure design. Moreover, as the loudspeaker structures 1 are directly fixed to the display 10, maintenance or replacement of the loudspeaker structures 1 will be extremely difficult. The direct fixing of the loudspeaker structures 1 to the display 10 is also unable to adjust the angle of the loudspeaker structures 1. Consequently, the directions of sound propagation cannot be adjusted to produce better sound effect according to personal and environmental needs.
FIG. 2 illustrates another conventional loudspeaker structure relating to a loudspeaker-including base 2 for a display. The loudspeaker-including base 2 includes a supporting frame 21 and a two-unit loudspeaker set 22, wherein the supporting frame 21 is fixedly engaged with a bottom portion of the display. The supporting frame 21 is provided therein with two transmission lines (not shown) which are respectively and electrically connected to an audio input line of the display and the loudspeaker set 22 so as to receive audio signals from the display and transmit the audio signals to the loudspeaker set 22. The loudspeaker set 22 is configured to reproduce the audio signals transmitted through the transmission lines. In addition, the two units of the loudspeaker set 22 are located on two lateral sides of the supporting frame 21 respectively to increase the overall balance of the loudspeaker-including base 2 in supporting the display. However, despite the integration of audio and supporting functions, and hence a significantly increased size of the loudspeaker-including base 2, the loudspeaker set 22 is also unable to adjust the angle between the loudspeaker-including base 2 and the display. Besides, the two units of the loudspeaker set 22 are too close to each other to create a good surround sound effect. While the loudspeaker-including base 2 has both audio and supporting functions, the integration of the loudspeaker set 22 and the supporting frame 21 inevitably limits the performances of both. As a result, the performances of the loudspeaker set 22 and the supporting frame 21 may be less desirable than when the loudspeaker structure is provided separately from the display.
According to the above, the conventional loudspeaker structures shown in FIGS. 1 and 2 do provide improvements over their predecessors but are still lacking, particularly in terms of the overall design of and cooperation between the loudspeaker structure and the display. More specifically, the loudspeaker structures of FIG. 1 are so bulky that the overall volume of the display cannot be reduced. In addition, both the loudspeaker structures in FIGS. 1 and 2 are fixed to the display and therefore do not allow angular adjustment on the loudspeakers. Because of that, it is impossible to adjust the sound propagation directions of the loudspeakers according to the user's needs and environmental requirements, let alone achieve the desired acoustic field. Hence, the issue to be addressed by the present invention is to design a novel loudspeaker structure which not only functions as a supporting base for positioning a display on a plane (e.g., a desktop), with a view to replacing the conventional supporting bases, but also allows the sound propagation direction of a loudspeaker to be freely adjusted according to the user's needs and environmental requirements, so as to produce the desired acoustic field. It is further desired that the loudspeaker structure, when not connected to the display, serves as a standalone loudspeaker and can be placed wherever needed, so that the applicability of the loudspeaker structure is substantially broadened.